Weekend Box Office: Russell Brand Conquers America (Big Asterisk)

For one weekend anyway, Russell Brand has conquered America, starring in the #1 and #2 movie at the box office. Now for the asterisk part: The #1 movie for a second straight weekend is Hop, in which Brand doesn’t appear, but rather lends his voice to the role of an animated bunny. The #2 movie is the remake of Arthur, which at an anemic $12.6 million, barely edged out a handful of other openers that either underperformed or didn’t have nearly as high an expectation for success. For example, the films in the third and fourth slots have reason for cheer: The arted-up action-thriller Hanna, on the boutique Focus Features label, took a respectable $12.3 million, and the low-budget inspirational sports drama Soul Surfer brought out its church-y audience to the tune of $9.5 million. The only outright loser of the week was the widely panned comedy Your Highness, which offers further proof that motivating stoners to leave the house and spend money on something other than Cheetos and weed is a losing proposition.

Not much action in limited release, with Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff opening decently, if unspectacularly, at $11,150 per screen on two screens, and the “No Wave” documentary Blank City posting a strong-for-a-documentary $12,000 on one screen. Despite a cast headlined by Keanu Reeves, Henry’s Crime brought in only $3,750 per screen on two screens—not Cat Run bad, but pretty bad.